Hunterdon County nixes planning coordinator idea

HUNTERDON COUNTY -- Hunterdon County officials have axed a plan to hire a recycling coordinator.

The position had been proposed as part of a plan to increase the county’s recycling rate, which for years put Hunterdon last in the state. According to the most recent data available — from 2006 — the county moved to third-to-last.

“We feel that recycling is better than what our municipalities are documenting,” county administrator Cynthia Yard said today.

Hunterdon is still under orders from the state Department of Environmental Protection to improve, and on Dec. 24, the DEP approved the county’s plan.

But no coordinator will be hired since the utilities authority decided against the idea on Tuesday because too few municipalities agreed to help fund one.

The county gave its 26 municipalities a month to respond about whether they were interested in contributing to pay for the coordinator position, and only 11 said yes.

Seven towns said they did not want to participate: Glen Gardner, Hampton, Kingwood, Lambertville, Raritan, Union and West Amwell. And the remaining eight towns did not respond either way, Yard said. They were: Bethlehem, the Town of Clinton, Flemington, Franklin, Frenchtown, Holland, Lebanon Borough and Stockton.

Freeholder Director Will Mennen said today that the freeholders are opposed to a county-run recycling program — proposed by the county’s Solid Waste Advisory Committee and done in Somerset and Mercer — saying: “We’re just not in a position to do that. We questioned the intelligence of increasing the size of government anyway,” he said.

But, Mennen added, they have some other ideas, such as orchestrating a collective purchasing agreement with the private trash haulers that would require them to pick up curbside recycling, which might get better rates for residents, as well. The county will also be focusing on recycling education efforts, he said.